Too Fat to Travel.

Abstract:
Obesity is rapidly becoming a significant challenge of the 21st century. 1.6billion people worldwide are overweight, of which 400million are obese (Mylrea, 2009), and this is set to rise, which will inevitably affect the tourism industry. Although relatively vague at present, legislation is predicted to evolve in favour of obesity, but public opinion remains adverse. Nevertheless, it is concluded that obesity will only be an issue for the minority of extreme cases, but this is unlikely to be an issue that will fade throughout the 21st century.

Key Words:
Obesity, Tourism, discrimination, legislation, travel preferences




Obesity is rapidly becoming a significant challenge of the 21st century. With a BMI of over 29.9 (WHO, 2013), 400million people worldwide are considered obese, which the WHO is predicting will rise to 700million, with a further 1.6billion overweight, by 2015 (Mylrea, 2009).
Contrary to the scope of the issue, the published research on how obesity is affecting tourism is very much limited. As Small & Harris (2012) say, in current literature, obesity is considered a "problem" (p.688) to be cured or as a subspecies of people. This paper will aim to bring together theories on social discrimination and disability legislation to discuss how body weight could affect holiday choice, and test the trends found in the literature on a sample of 20 participants to provide an insight into the extent to which body size is restricting holiday-taking, if at all.
This paper was inspired by the news that Samoa Air is to become the first airline to charge passengers based on their overall weight, inclusive of their body weight (Siddique, 2013). However this is not a pioneering concept within the airline industry. For example, South West Airlines has a "customer of size" policy, and although others are less forthcoming, the challenges of transporting the obese are being recognised (Landsel, 2008).
Firstly, legislation should be considered to evaluate the legal limitations that an obese person experiences. In the UK, obesity in itself is not considered a disability under the Equality Act 2010 (Office for Disability Issues, 2010). However, the recent court hearings in both the UK (McCavish, 2013) and USA (Mylrea, 2009) are showing signs that there is could be a possibility that future legislation and court rulings may evolve in favour of obesity being a discriminable attribute. If so, the effect this will have on the tourism industry is that services will be required to make provisions to accommodate the larger person.
Social discrimination and the effect of culture is also arguably able to restrict the obese person's travel decisions. Negative stereotypes faced by the obese population (Brandon & Pritchard, 2011) have been explained in the literature using social identity theory, so with the body defined as a "socio-cultural entity inscribed with meaning" (Small & Harris, 2012, p.687) prejudice against the obese person is inevitable. Furthermore, the media has significantly contributed to stereotyping in tourism. Promotion as an occurrence for 'beautiful' people through its imagery, Small & Harris (2012, p.688) comment that the "[overweight] body should be tackled and defeated before public exposure especially at the beach". The affect that this may have on tourism choice is speculated to be that the obese person is less likely to opt for certain types of destination or services, such as those with deep-rooted associations to a undesirable unwelcoming stereotype (Andsager & Drzewiecka, 2002) discouraged by the effect of semiotics in the marketing (Voase, 1995), or make choices that will not provoke emotional distress from social discrimination (Small & Harris, 2012, McLannahan & Clifton, 2008).
In spite of this, the results from the survey shows that the effects of body weight on tourism were less significant than expected. Although the data showed that healthy weight respondents had a slightly higher overall level of satisfaction from their previous holiday compared to obese participants, there were no significant variances or correlations in the least preferred, most preferred and previously used mode of travel and distance from home. However, social discrimination was observed to an extent. 95% did not consider obesity a disability, but 52% believed an obese person should not have to pay more for a service if adaption is required, of which only 20% were individuals of healthy weight.
One explanation for the results is that the sample is not obese enough to restrict a person's decisions, particularly in terms of the logistics of travel. While the results of this project do not wholly void the conclusions made from the literature, it would seem that the challenge of obesity for tourism providers and consumers will only be caused by a minority, at least with the present levels of obesity. But with the upward trend of obesity in mind, this is unlikely to be a challenge that will weaken throughout the 21st century. With public opinion holding no sympathy for the obese population while it is still considered a lifestyle choice, specialist services or adaptions are going to be supplied at a premium and economic barriers are likely to develop. However could discrimination be what is required to defer the obesity epidemic?



McLannahan, H. and Clifton, P. (2008) Challenging Obesity - The science behind the issues, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Smith, J, & Harris, C (2011) OBESITY AND TOURISM: Rights and Responsibilities, Annals Of Tourism Research, 39, pp. 686-707
Mylrea, R (2009) A Growing Body of Law: Obesity, Disability, and the Airline Industry, Tulane Journal Of International And Comparative Law, 18, pp. 207-229

I was drawn to comment on this discussion paper because of it's amusing and highly encapturing title. First and foremost, the overall discussion does prove as interesting as its intriguing title, Harris (2013) provides an array of valid points, and it is evident that she has thought 'outside of the box' whilst preparing this discussion. The discussion highlights the issue of obesity becoming a momentous challenge of the 21st century. Quite rightly, it is widely justified in current academia that weight bias is a prominent cause of inequalities in employment, health care settings and educational institutes (Puhl & Heuer, 2012) evidently society has an unfair discriminative attitude to those who are obese. This article has demonstrated that these inequalities are also present in the tourism industry.

It is understood that Samoa Air discriminates its larger passengers on the grounds of cost. It is also recognised that 'South West' operate a similar concept. The author goes on to quite rightly argue that legislation should be considered to evaluate the legal limitations that an obese person experiences. After all if a person is too large to fit safely and securely in the seat of an aircraft, it could be deemed that the airline company are indeed subliminally stating that, that person is, as Harris presents is 'too fat to travel'. It may be reasoned that this type of social discrimination does restrict travel choices because of the former evidence. Harris also examines a different perspective to further the debate- a particular strength of this article. I strongly agree that the media and official publication from tour operators provokes a view of 'beautiful' and 'glamorous' people in bikinis having fun. The article made me realise that I have never seen a picture of an obese person in any marketing or media coverage of a holiday destination in general, but more specifically sun, sea and sand holidays, this is also realised by Voase (1995) who states that semiotics in the marketing may discourage certain people from destinations. A good use of primary research indicates real life statistics to back up the academic evidence although, critically it would seem that Harris may have achieved more reliable and useful results by conducting her survey with clinically and medically diagnosed obese people to gauge their opinions.
In answer to the concluding statement, it could possibly be the case that discrimination is the only way people of this description could change. I personally conclude that public opinion will continue to hold no sympathy for the obese, including the airlines and tour operators. Legislation is assumingly the only way tour operators would make drastic changes to services to cater for the obese.

The article relates well to larger debate in such sectors as health and fitness and is a commendable analysis and interesting read. The opinions formed in this commentry were further informed by Small and Harris (2011). To leave the next reader with an afterthought and taking a different view- is tourism itself to blame for this increased obesity? After all, people do over indulge in the partaking of leisure and tourism activities. Is this all just one vicious circle in an ever growing tourism industry in the 21st century that potentially provokes and instegates a 'fat' society?


References

Small, J & Harris, C (2011) OBESITY AND TOURISM: Rights and responsibilities, Annals of tourism research, Vol. 39, p686-707

Voase, R (1995), Tourism: The human perspective, London: Hodder Arnold

Puhl, R & Heuer, C (2009), The stigma of obesity: A review and update, Obesity, a research journal, Vol. 17 (5), p941-964